LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



PRESENTED BY 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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DEDIOATIO]^ 



HALLECK MONUMENT, 



AT GUILFORD, CONNECTICUT, 



Juhj Sth, IS 69, 




THE HALLECK MONUMENT, AT GUILFORD. 



A DESCRIPTION 



DEDIOATIOI^ OF THE MOI^TUMEISTT 

ERECTED AT GUILFORD, CONNECTICUT, 

IN HONOR OF 

FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 



" Such graves as Ms are pilgrim shriues." 



"No poet had died and received such tribute in America." 






PRIVATELY PRINTED FOR THE COMMITTEE, BY 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, OF NEW YORK. 
1869. 






^^^.'^ 



Soon after tlie deatli of Fitz-Gkeene Halleck, near 
the close of tlie year 1867, liis friend, General J. G. 
Wilson, aided by Mr. Benjamin H. Field, and the 
Hon. Horace Greeley, of 'New York, by General 
H. W. Halleck, the poet's kinsman, then in command 
of the Division of the Pacific, and Mr, Horace H. 
Moore, of San Francisco, collected the sum of two 
thousand dollars among the poet's many friends and 
admirers, for the purpose of erecting a suitable monu- 
ment at Guilford, Connecticut, his birth and burial 
place. It was designed gratuitously by Douglas Smytlie, 
of Kew York, and was made and erected by John 
Eitter&Son, of [New Haven, in August, 1868. The 
engraving of the monument was obligingly furnished to 
the committee by Frank Leslie. It is made of Rhode- 
Island granite, and is nearly eighteen feet high. 
Upon the front tablet is the simple inscription, in bas- 
relief, " Fitz-Gbeene Halleck, 1790-1867," and upon 
the cornice of the pedestal the following lines from his 
poem of " Marco Bozzaris : " 

" One of the few, the immortal names, 
That were not born to die." 



Above tlie inscription is a monogram, consisting of the 
Greek letters Alpha and Omega — the beginning and 
end — and near the foot of the obelisk an oak-branch. 
Upon the opposite, or rear tablet, in bas-relief, is a lyre 
supported by two bm'ning torches. On the east side of 
the monument is the inscription, " N^athaniel E. Hal- 
leck, 1792-1Y93," and on the west are the words, 
"Israel Halleck, 1754-1839," "Mary Eliot Halleck, 
1762-1819." The obelisk occupies a conspicuous posi- 
tion near the centre of the Alderbrook Cemetery, or, as 
it is more generally called, the East Burial-Ground, and 
stands in an oval plot twenty by thirty feet, obtained after 
the poet's death, the place of his burial not being an 
appropriate one for the monument. Around the plot 
has been placed a strong and durable railing of iron, 
with granite posts, and a path four feet in width sur- 
rounds the poet's burial-place, and is separated from 
the other grounds by a neat evergreen hedge. Some 
of the Melrose- Abbey ivy, received from the hands of 
Sir "Walter Scott by Irving, and which was transplanted 
at Sunnyside, where it clings rejoicingly to the walls of 
his picturesque cottage, is now growing near Halleck's 
monument, and its bright dark leaves mingle with the 
green turf that covers the poet's grave. The sum of 
one hundred dollars will be invested in the trustees of 
the cemetery, by Miss Halleck, the proceeds of which 
are to be forever applied to keeping the monument, the 
railing, the grass, the path, and the hedge that sur- 
rounds the whole, in good order. The following are 



the names of the donors, whose subscriptions varied 
from five dollars up to fifty : William B. Astor, D. Ap- 
pleton & Co., Charles W. Sandford, Samuel B. Buggies, 
J. Carson Brevoort, T. W. C. Moore, W. W. Baldwin, 
William T. Blodgett, Robert Bonner, S. B. Chittenden, 
Rev. C. W. Everest, Benjamin H. Meld, Christian 
Eoselius, William L. Andrews, James T. Brady, James 
Gordon Bennett, George W. Cass, Henry Clews, George 
W. Childs, Frederick De Peyster, Charles A. Peabody, 
W. M. Yermilye, Thurlow Weed, J. E. Williams, 
Henry H. Elliott, R. G. L. De Peyster, George Gris- 
wold, John Caswell, William G. Fargo, A. T. Mosher, 
James H. Hackett, Henry AV, Longfellow, Charles P. 
Clinch, Charles Sumner, James Grant Wilson, William 
Cullen Bryant, Charles O'Conor, Hamilton Fish, John 
M. Carnochan, Charles P. Daly, John M. Bixby, A. B. 
Durand, Horace Greeley, Frank Moore, James Lawson, 
Samuel Ward, Jas. Lenox, Cyrus W. Field, Gouverneur 
Kemble, Samuel J. Tilden, George Folsom, Charles W. 
Elliott, Charles G. Landon, James F. De Peyster, David 
Stewart, William H. Macy, William B. Ogden, C. F. 
Southmayd, Mrs. A. C. L. Botta, Mrs. E. H. Colt, 
Mrs. C. A. Davis, Mrs. N. S. Holbrook, Mrs. F. A. 
Kemble, S. L. M. Barlow, Lloyd Aspinwall, Henry 
Hale Ward, Isaac ]^. Phelps, John D. Jones, Edwin 
Forrest, John G. Whittier, S. F. B. Morse, Benjamin 
R. Winthrop, C. de P. Field, Samuel D. Babock. 

California Subsckebees. — Selim E. Woodworth, 
E. Casserly, Henry W. Halleck, F. Billings, A. C. 



Peachy, John Parrott, Eobert Allen, H. H, Bancroft 
& Co., A. Roman & Co., Robert C. Rogers, Frank 
Sonle, Delos Lake, H. H. Byrne, H. B. Williams, 
Winans & Belknap, J. A. Donalioe. 

In accordance with the wishes of Miss Halleck, and 
General Wilson, the poet's biographer, the formal dedi- 
cation of the monnment — the first erected to an Ameri- 
can poet — was deferred until the anniversary of his birth, 
and on the 28th of June the following programme was 
issued by a committee chosen by the citizens of Guil- 
ford : 

PROGRAMME 

FOB THE FORMAL DEDICATION OP THE 

HALLECK MONUMENT 

At Guilford, Conn., July 8th, 1869. 
EXEKCISES WILL COMMENCE AT TWO o'cLOCK, P. M. 



Mr. S. B. CHITTENDEN will preside. 

Music By the Band. 

Readiog of Ilalleck's Lines on Burns By Gen, J. G. Wilson. 

Music By the Band. 

Poem written for the occasion By Dr. O. "W. Holmes. 

Music By the Band. 

Address By Mr. Bayaed Taylor. 

The exercises will terminate in season for visitors to take the afternoon trains 
for New York and Boston. 



S. B. Chittenden, 
Lewis R. Elliot, 
Wm. W. Baldwin, 
EoBEET Hunt, 



Committee. 



Special invitations were extended by the committee 
of arrangements to all the monument subscribers, and 
to a few other gentlemen, and the following letters were 
received in reply : 

New Yoke, July 1, 1869. 
Gentlemen: I have received the invitation with 
which you have kindly favored me, to attend the formal 
dedication of the Halleck Monument, at Guilford, on 
the 8th, and I regret extremely that I shall be unable 
to be present on the interesting occasion. 
Yery respectfully, yours, 

Wm, B. Astor. 
Messrs. S. B. CniTTENDEisr, 
Lewis E. Elliot, 
Wm. "W. Baldwin, 
EoBEET Hunt, 

Committee, Guilford, Connecticut. 



The Evening Po:jT, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty 
New Yoek, June 26, 1869 



1 



My Dear Sir : I give you many thanks for your 
very kind and hospitable invitation, whicli, however, 
I cannot accept. I have arrived at that age when it re- 
quires a pretty strong inducement to draw a man from 
his home, but at present I have a reason for remaining 
which I cannot resist. I have this morning received a 
letter from the bookseller who is to publish my transla- 
tion of Homer, claiming of me the performance of a 
promise which I gave him, to supply, at this time, that 



8 

part of the translation wliich will form the first volume. 
This will occupy me closely for several days to come, a 
fortnight probably, and I have not a day to spare. 
Repeating my thanks for your obliging invitation, 
I am, dear sir, 

Yery truly yours, 

W. 0. Bryant. 
S. B. Chittenden, Esq. 



Palisade Av., Yonkers, Jtdy 7th. 
My Dear Me. Chittenden : 

I am much obliged to you for your kind invita- 
tion to Guilford in connection with the Halleck Monu- 
ment ceremonies. Had I received it earlier, I might 
have postponed other engagements which now make it 
impossible for me to be away from the city to-morrow. 
I am glad you have taken the leading part in a com- 
memorative service so appropriate and interesting, and 
I much regret my not being able to be with you. 

My friend and neighbor, Mr. James Lawson, who 
proposes to go to Guilford, will favor me by taking this 
note, and you will find him a very worthy representa- 
tive ofYonkers. 

Yours, very truly, 

"Wm. Allen Butler. 
S. B. Chittenden, Esq. 



CusTOM-EorsE, New York, ) 
Collector's Office, July 2, 1869. ) 

Me. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Cojoiittee, 

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
invitation to attend the formal dedication of the Hal- 
leck Monument, at Guilford, Connecticut, on July 8th, 
1869 ; and the sorrow to say, that the discharge of my 
official duties will deprive me of the happiness of assist- 
ing on an occasion so commendable on yonr part, so 
justly due to Fitz-Greene Halleck. 

AVith great respect, your obedient servant, 

C. P. Clinch, Asst. Coll. 
To S. B. Chittenden, 
Lewis E. Elijot, 
Wm. W. Baldwin, 
EoBEET Hunt, Esqrs., 

Committee, &c. 



Rahway, N. J., July 2, 1869. 
S. B. Chittenden, Esq., and Members of CoMivnTTEE, 

Gentlemen : I regret that I cannot be present at 
the formal dedication of the Monument to my old and 
revered friend Halleck, nor accept the hospitable invi- 
tation of your chairman. But I fully appreciate the 
kindly sympathy which has reared a monument among 
his neighbors to that dear old man and bright-eyed 
old poet. 

Accept my thanks for your kind remembrance of me 



10 

on this interesting occasion. If it were possible, I would 
be present. 

Very trnlj, yoiu' obliged friend, 

Fkedekick S. Cozzens. 



AsHFiELD, Mass., July 6, 1869. 
My Deae Sir : The kind invitation to the dedica 
tion of the Halleck Monument reached me only last 
evening, and I am very sorry that I am unable to ac- 
cept it, for the bright memory of the poet, the lovely 
season, and the words that will be said and sung, com- 
bine to make the occasion most alluring. 
Yery truly yours, 

George William Cuktis. 



New York, July 1, 1869. 
Gentlemen : I regret that the serious illness of my 
wife will deprive me of the satisfaction of being present 
at the dedication of the Halleck Monument on the 
8th inst. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

Frederick De Peystee. 
Messrs. Chitten^den, 
Elliot, 
Baldwin, and 
Hunt, 
Committee at Guilford, Connecticut. 



11 



New York, July 6, 1869. 

My Dear Mk. Chittenden : I regret veiy much 

that a previous engagement for that day will prevent 

me from being at Guilford on the 8th inst. 

With much respect, I remain, 

My dear Mr. Chittenden, 

Very truly your friend, 

Cyrus W. Field. 
S. B. Chittenden, Guilford, Conn. 



New Toek Tribune, ) 
New York, July 2, 1869. f 

My Deae Friend : I can't go up to Guilford (because 

I must give the time to worrying the Free Traders), but 

I will send a reporter, and remain, 

Yours, 

Horace Greeley, 
General J. G. Wilson. 



State of Connecticut, Executive Department, ) 
Hartford, July 3, 1869. ) 
S. B. Chittenden, Esq. 

Dear Sir : The Governor directs me to say that, as 
the General Assembly adjourns on the 9th July, it will 
be impossible for him to attend the dedication of the 
Halleck monument at Guilford, on the 8th July. 

He regrets that he is compelled to decline your kind 

invitation. 

Very respectfully, 

Henry E. Burton, Ex. Sec. 



12 

iSToRwicH Town, Conn., July 2, 1869. 
S. B. Chittenden, Esq., 

SiE : Circumstances will deprive me of the pleasure 
of being present at the dedication of the Halleck Monu 
ment, on Thursday next. It would afford me great 
gratification to participate in the exercises on that in- 
teresting occasion. But domestic engagements detain 
me at home, and I must deny myself an indulgence 
that would conflict with them. 

My heart is, in love, reverence, and admiration, cor- 
dially in unison with the feelings of those who honor 
themselves by honoring the memory of our bard and 
friend, by these choice literary tributes to the first of 
American poets, one of the noblest of our countrymen, 
and an exquisite specimen of one of " God Almighty's 

gentlemen." 

I am, very respectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 

W. A. Jones. 



PniLADELPniA, July 5, 1869. 
Dear Sir : If I could avail myself of your courteous 
invitation to assist at the dedication of the Halleck 
Monument, it would be a great gratification to me, 
but my hours are all engaged throughout this week. 
General Wilson's biography and fine edition of the poems 
constitute a noble monument for stay-at-homes, such as 
Yours faithfully, 

E.. Shelton Mackenzie. 

S. B^ Chittenden, Esq. 



13 



111 East Twelfth St., New York, July 5, 1869. 
Deae Sie : I beg leave to return my sincere tlianks 
to tlie Halleck Monument Committee, for the invitation 
to attend tlie dedication of it, at Guilford, on the 8th 
inst. 

I regret exceedingly that the state of my health at 
present will prevent my availing myself of it. 

Yery respectfully yours, 

T. W. C. MooKE. 
S. B. Chittenden, Esq., and others co7n2)osing the Committee. 



PotTGHKEEPSiE, July 1, 1869. 
Gentlemen : I regret that circumstances, requiring 
my presence here, will prevent my acceptance of your 
kind invitation to be present on the interesting occa- 
sion of the dedication of the Halleck Monument, on the 
8th inst. 

With sincere respect. 

Your obedient servant, 

Samuel F. B. Morse. 
To S. B. Chittenden, Esq., and Committee^ Guilford, Conn. 



New Yoek, July 1, 1869. 
Deae Sie : Mr. O'Conor, on the eve of a departure 
from the city for the "West, desires me to ex]:)ress his 



14 

regret that it will not be in his power to attend the 

dedication of the Halleck Monument. 

I am, dear sir, yours truly, 

Edmd. Elmendoef, Jr., 

for Charles O'Conor. 
S. B. Chittenden, Esq., 

Chairman, <&c., Guilford, Connecticut. 



Few Yoek, July 2, 1869. 
Dear Sir : I regret my inability to accept the in- 
vitation of the Committee for dedication of the Halleck 
Monument. 

Very respectfully yours, 

Chas. F. Southmatd. 
S. B. Chittenden, Esq., Chairman. 



Mr. a. T. Stewart regrets that he is unable to 
accept the polite invitation of the Committee on the 
Halleck Monument, to attend the dedication at Guil- 
ford, on the 8th inst. 

New Yoek City, Jidy 3, 1869. 



Amesbuet, 28th 6 mo., 1869. 
Dear Friend : I regret that, owing to the state o± 
my health, I am not able to be present at the dedica- 
tion of the Monument to Fitz-Greene Halleck. To use 
his own words, in one of his imperishable poems : 

" Such graves as his are pilgrim shrines," 



15 

and it is fitting that a token of grateful appreciation 

should mark his resting-place. 

Yery truly, thy friend, 

John G. Whittiek. 
Gen. J. G. "Wilson. 



Thursday, July 8th, was an auspicious day. Summer 
gave her most tempered sunshine, her sweetest airs, for 
the ceremonies which dedicated the monument to one 
of America's earliest-born poets. The " gray rocks " of 
Connecticut grew softer in the mellow light ; freshest 
odors of new-mown hay were in the air, and delightful 
breezes from the Sound turned the silver linino; of the 
willow-leaves and shook the tassels of the blossomino- 
chestnuts. Thie rough little State never seemed so 
beautiful as to those who followed her coast on their 
way to Guilford, to participate in the final honors ren- 
dered to one of her best-known and best-beloved sons. 

Many of Halleck's old friends and associates were 
faithful to his memory. Among them were. General 
C. AV. Sandford, like the poet, a member of 

" Swartwout's gallant corps, the Iron Grays," 

who volunteered for the defence of Xew York against 
the apprehended attack by the British in 1814 ; Mr. W. 
W. Bruce, who was associated with Halleck during the 
years that he was in the counting-house of John Jacob 
Astor ; his kinsman, Charles Elliot, aged eighty-one ; the 
poet's school-day friends, George H. Foote and Abra 



16 

ham S. Fowler ; Miss Caldwell, upward of ninety, and 
a life-long acquaintance of the poet ; Mr. R. G. L. De 
Pejster ; Judge C. A. Peabody ; Mr. Benjamin H. Field ; 
Dr. John W. Carnochan ; ex-Senator L. S. Foster ; Mr. 
James Lawson ; John T. Agnew ; Charles "W. Elliott ; 
John Roberton ; Charles Nordhoff, of the New York 
jPost ; General Hawley ; Professor Silliman ; Professor 
Day ; Eichard H. Stoddard : William Walter Phelps ; 
Colonel J. W. De Forest ; Rev. Dr. Bennett ; Hon. 
Ralph D, Smith ; Judge Landon ; General James Grant 
Wilson ; Mr. Bayard Taylor ; George Hill, like Hal- 
leck, a poet, and the author of a volume called " The 
Ruins of Athens ; " Hon. John Cotton Smith, and 
many others. IS^early all those named were conveyed 
in carriages, on the arrival of the train at eleven o'clock, 
to the residence of the Chairman of the Committee ot 
Arrangements, where they enjoyed his hospitality ; and 
at two o'clock were conveyed to the cemetery, where 
there was an assemblage of from two to three thousand 
persons. An object of affectionate interest among many 
of the audience surrounding the covered j)latform erect- 
ed for the occasion on the cemetery lawn, near the 
monument, was the poet's sister. Miss Maria Halleck, 
a lady of upward of four score, who in appearance 
very greatly resembles her distinguished brother. 
Seated by her side was Mrs. William Todd, the " Dear 
Sarah " of one of the school-boy Halleck's poems ; Miss 
Laura Betts, the poet's cousin and contemporary ; and 
Miss Clara Caldwell, as cheerful at ninety-four as w^hen. 



17 

in tlie year 1787, she attended the wedding, in the Epis- 
copal church at Guilford, of Israel Ilalleck and Mary 
Eliot, the poet's father and mother. Halleck's school- 
boy friends, Mr. A. S. Fowler, Colonel Eoote, and 
many others, who knew him familiarly and loved him 
fondly, were also among the assemblage gathered to- 
gether to do honor to the poet's memory. The monu- 
ment was surrounded with flowers, and a large floral 
cross, exquisitely arranged, marked the exact resting- 
place o± the poet. A little after two o'clock, a special 
train from I^ew Haven arrived, bringing a Bridgeport 
band and a body of Knights Templars, from IS'ew 
Haven. After music by the band, Mr. Simeon B. 
Chittenden called the meeting to order, and said : 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

My thanks are due to the active members of the 
Committee of Arrangements for the honor of presiding 
on this interesting occasion. I perceive that you are 
all eager for the intellectual feast just before you. I 
shall detain you, therefore, but three or four minutes. 

We have met here to cover with ephemeral flowers, 
and mark with enduring granite, the new grave of a de- 
parted son of Guilford, who in his lifetime stamped the 
impress of his wit and genius more conspicuously upon 
the world than any other son of our well-beloved quiet 
home. I see before me worthy descendants of the men 
who founded the empire of old Guilford, and, as the 
illustrious subject of our meeting will be treated by far 
2 



18 

worthier hands than mme, I shall be pardoned, I trust, 
fjr delaying the appointed exercises for a moment, to 
glance backward two hundred and forty years. 

The iirst settlers came to Guilford, according to the 
meagre records, in 1639 — a company of seven, six men 
and a minister. The names of the men are all given, 
but nothing is said about women. There is plenty of evi- 
dence here to-day that they had at least wives, and it 
may be mothers, among them ; but their strange silence 
suggests that they were not the sort of ladies who in 
our time glory in the Sorosis. 

Contrary to the rule nowadays, the minister was 
the richest man of the party. He had the longest purse 
and the broadest plantation. He built right away, for 
his own use, a strong stone house, which was also used 
as a fort. There it stands yonder, two hundred and 
forty years old — the oldest inhabited structm-e in 
America. Thanks to the liberal far-sightedness of the 
present owner, it is now in excellent condition, and 
promises to last at least five hundred years longer. 

Aside from this precious relic, but little visible trace 
remains of the doings of this band of heroes for the first 
three or four years. In the absence of written records, 
the famous old fort is an eloquent testimonial to their 
energy, courage, and self-reliance. History speaks of 
these men as " pillars." Undoubtedly they were among 
the first and best foundation-stones upon which we are 
yet building the national superstructure. Guilford did 
not grow as fast as Chicago or Omaha. Steam and the 



]9 

lightning had not been harnessed then, lloreover, the 
rocks crowded the roots here then, just as they do now. 
"Who dare say that the hidden, unheralded work of 
Whitefield and the other six was less vital and honora- 
ble than the blazing achievements of our time ? Who 
shall measm'e the essential native force of the men, and 
fix the meed of praise due respectively to those who in 
1639 confronted the savages and built yonder fort on 
these plains, and to those who in 1869 laid their daily 
ten miles of iron track across the continent, and opened 
the Pacific golden gate to the commerce of the world ? 

In 1643, another company of about forty " gentle- 
men " planters joined the first hardy pioneers. In the 
plenitude of their pluck, " they brought few servants, 
no merchant or blacksmith with them." It would ap- 
pear that they got on very well without servants and 
merchants ; but they couldn't do without a blacksmith. 
It is recorded that, after protracted debate and effort, 
and at " great cost," they succeeded in obtaining a good 
one. From that day to this the blacksmiths of Guilford 
have been selectmen of the town, and have oftentimes 
wielded the largest influence. 

It is curious and interesting, at least to those of us 
who claim this village as our home, to notice in this 
connection that, several generations later on, the son of 
a blacksmith connected with Davenport's colony at 
N^ew Haven came here as a farmer's boy. "Wearying 
of that, he went to college, and in due time returned, 
took a wife from Nut Plains — a mile or so north of us — 



20 

and made her the favored mother of the most remarka- 
ble and influential family that America has yet pro- 
duced. 

I see that my minutes are up. I must not detain 
you. There is nothing more noticeable in the character 
of our ancestors than their modesty. That is traditional. 
But we Guilford souls have a right to boast a little to-day 
of the old fort, of the first American family, and of the 
distinguished and honored poet whose praises we have 
met to celebrate. 

After music by the band, the chairman announced 
that there would be some modification in the published 
programme, and he then introduced to the audience Mr. 
George Hill, of Guilford, who read the following son- 
net, composed for the occasion : 

THE GRAVE OF HALLECK. 

In thee no gorgeous capital, no mart, 
Known wheresoe'er a wave rolls, though we see, 

Yet, Guilford ! everi thine no humble part 
In memory's pageant henceforth e'er shall be. 

The earth that heaps thy relics, Halleck ! where 

No name more famed sepulchral shaft shall bear, 
Full many a pilgrim-bard from many a shore 
Shall wend to greet till time shall be no more ; 

The spot, henceforth to genius ever dear, 

Shall gladly hail, nor quit without a tear ; 
Some strain of thy imperishable lyre 
Recall, and, ere reluctant he retire. 

Exclaim, " In thee, O Fame's lamented son ! 

A thousand poets we have lost in one." 



21 

This was followed by the reading of the first part of 
Halleck's admirable poem " Connecticut," by the Hon. 
John Cotton Smith, and after appropriate music, which 
was interspersed throughout the ceremonies, the chairman 
announced that Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes having been 
prevented from being present, his commemorative lyric 
would be read by the poet's biographer, James Grant 
Wilson. He then introduced General Wilson, who 
read the following beautiful lines written for the 
occasion : 

IN" MEMORY OF FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 

Say not the poet dies ! 

Though in the dust he lies ! 
He canaot forfeit his melodious breath, 

Un sphered by envious Deatli ! 
Life drops the voiceless myriads from its roll ; 

Their fate he cannot share, 

"Who, in the enchanted air 
Sweet with the lingering strains that echo stole, 
Has left his dearer self, the music of his soul ! 

"We o'er his turf may raise 

Our notes of feeble praise, 
And carve with pious care for after-eyes 

The stone with " Here he lies; " 
He for himself has built a nobler shrine, 

"Whose walls of stately rhyme 

Roll back the tides of time, 
"WJjile e'er their gates the gleaming tablets shine 
That wear his name, inwrought with many a golden line! 



22 

Call not our poet dead, 

Though on his turf we tread ! 
Green is the wreath their brows so long have worn, — 

The minstrels of the morn, 
"Who, while the Orient burned with new-born flame, 

Caught that celestial tire 

And struck a Nation's lyre ! 
These taught the western winds the poet's name ; 
Theirs the first opening buds, the maiden flowers of fame ! 

Count not our poet dead ! 

The stars shall watch his bed. 
The rose of June its fragrant life renew 

His blushing mound to strew, 
And all the tuneful throats of summer swell 

With trills as crystal clear 

As when he wooed the ear 
Of the young muse that haunts each wooded dell 
With songs of that " rough land " he loved so long and well! 

He sleeps ; he cannot die ! 

As evening's long-drawn sigh. 
Lifting the rose-leaves on his peaceful mound, 

Spreads all their sweets around, 
So, laden with his song, the breezes blow 

From where the rustling sedge 

Frets our rude ocean's edge 
To the smooth sea beyond the peaks of snow. 
His soul the air enshrines, and leaves but dust below ! 

Dr. Holmes's poem was greeted with hearty ap- 
plause, and then followed the thoughtful and admirably- 
written and well-delivered address of Mr. Taylor. 



23 



DEDICATOEY ADDEESS. 

We liave been eighty years an organized nation, 
ninety-three years an independent people, more than 
two hundred years an American race, and to-day, for 
the first time in our history, we meet to dedicate pub- 
licly, with appropriate honors, a monimient to an 
American poet. The occasion is thus lifted above the 
circle of personal memories which inspired it, and takes 
its place, as the beginning of a new epoch in the story 
of our culture. It carries our thoughts back of the 
commencement of this individual life, into the elements 
from which our literature grew, and forward, far be- 
yond the closing of the tomb before us, into the possible 
growth and glory of the future. 

The rhythmical expression of emotion, or passion, 
or thought, is a need of the human race — coeval with 
speech, universal as religion, the prophetic forerunner 
as well as the last-begotten offspring of civilization. 
Poetry belongs equally to the impressible childhood ol 
a people and to the refined ease of their maturity. It 
is both the instinctive efibrt of Nature, and the loftiest 
ideal of Art, receding to farther and farther spheres of 
spiritual Beauty, as men rise to the capacity for its en- 
joyment. But our race was transferred, half-grown, 
from the songs of its early ages and the inspiring associa- 
tions of its Past, and set here, face to face with stern 
tasks, which left no space for the lighter play of the 
mind. The early generations of English bards gradu 



24 

ally become foreign to us; for their songs, however 
sweet, were not those of our home. We profess to 
claim an equal share in Chaucer, and Spenser, and 
Shakespeare, but it is a hollow pretence. They belong 
to our language, but we cannot truly feel that they be- 
long to us as a people. The destiny that placed us on 
this soil robbed us of the magic of tradition, the wealth 
of romance, the suggestions of history, the sentiment 
of inherited homes and customs, and left us, shorn of 
our lisping childhood, to create a poetic literature^ for 
ourselves. 

It is not singular, therefore, that this continent 
should have waited long for its first-born poet. The 
intellect, the energy of character, the moral force — 
even the occasional taste and refinement — which were 
shipped hither from the older shores, found the hard 
work of history already portioned out for them, and the 
Muses discovered no nook of guarded leisure, no haunt 
of sweet contemplation, which might tempt them to 
settle among us. Labor may be Prayer, but it is not 
Poetry. Liberty of Conscience and Worship, practical 
Democracy, the union of Civil Order and Personal In- 
dependence, are ideas which may warm the hearts and 
brains of men, but the soil in which they strike root is 
too full of fresh, unsoftened forces to produce the deli- 
cate wine of Song. The highest product of ripened 
intellect cannot be expected in the nonage of a nation. 
The poetry of our Colonial and Pevolutionary periods 
is mostly a spiritless imitation of inferior models in the 



25 

parent country. If, here and there, some timid, imcer- 
tain voice seems to guess the true language, we only 
hear it once or twice — like those colonized nightin- 
gales which for one brief summer gave their new song 
to the Virginian moonlights, and then disappeared. 
These early fragments of our poetry are chanted in the 
midst of such profound silence and loneliness that they 
sound spectrally to our ears. Philip Freneau is almost 
as much a shade to us as his own hunter and deer. 

In the same year in which the Constitution of the 
United States was completed and adopted, the first poet 
was born — Richard Henry Dana, who still lives, and, 
despite his gray head, still keeps the freshness and youth 
of the poetic nature. Less than three years after him 
Fitz-Greene Halleck came into the world — the lyrical 
genius following the grave and contemplative muse of 
his elder brother. In Halleck, therefore, we mourn 
our first loss out of the first generation of American 
bards ; and a deeper significance is thus given to the 
personal honors which we lovingly pay to his memory. 
Let us be glad, not only that these honors have been so 
nobly deserved, but also that we find in him a fitting 
representative of his age ! Let us forget our sorrow for 
the true man, the steadfast friend, and rejoice that the 
earliest child of song whom we return to the soil that 
bore him for us, was the brave, bright, and beautiful 
growth of a healthy, masculine race ! jSTo morbid im- 
patience with the restrictions of life — no fi-uitless lament 
over an unattainable ideal — no inherited gloom of tem- 



26 

perament, sucTi as finds delight in what it chooses to 
call despair, ever muffled the clear notes of his verse, 
or touched the sunny cheerfulness of his history. The 
cries and protests, the utterances of " world-pain," with 
which so many of his contemporaries in Europe filled the 
world, awoke no echo in his sound and sturdy nature. 
His life ofiers no enigmas for our solution. 'No roman- 
tic mystery floats around his name, to win for him the 
interest of a shallow sentimentalism. Clear, frank, 
simple, and consistent, his song and his life were woven 
into one smooth and even thread. We would wilhngly 
pardon in him some expression of dissatisfaction with a 
worldly fate which, in certain respects, seemed inade- 
quate to his genius, but we find that he never uttered 
it. The basis of his nature was a knightly bravery, of 
such firm and enduring temper that it kept from him 
even the ordinary sensitiveness of the poetic character. 
From the time of his studies as a boy, in the propitious 
kitchen which heard his first callow numbers, to the 
last days of a life which had seen no liberal popular 
recognition of his deserts, he accepted his fortune with 
the perfect dignity of a man who cannot stoop to dis- 
content. During his later visits to New Tork, the sim- 
plest, the most unobtrusive, yet the cheerfuUest man to 
be seen among the throngs of Broadway, was Fitz- 
Greene Halleck. Yet, with all his simplicity, his bear- 
ing was strikingly gallant and fearless ; the carriage of 
his head suggested the wearing of a helmet. The 
genial frankness and grace of his manner, in his inter 



27 

course with men, has suggested to others the epithet 
" courtly " — but I prefer to call it manhj, as the expres- 
sion of a rarer and finer quality than is usually found 
in the atmosphere of courts. 

Halleck was loyal to himself, as a man, and he was 
also loyal to his art, as a poet. His genius was essen- 
tially lyrical, and he seems to have felt, instinctively, 
its natural limitations. He quietly and gratefully ac- 
cepted the fame which followed his best productions, 
but he never courted public applause. Even the swift 
popularity of the Croaker series could not seduce him 
to take advantage of the tide, which then promised a 
speedy flood. At periods in his history, when any thing 
from his pen would have been welcomed by a class of 
readers, whose growing taste found so little sustenance 
at home, he remained silent because he felt no imme- 
diate personal necessity of poetic utterance. The Ger- 
man poet, Uhland, said to me: "I cannot now say 
whether I shall wi'ite any more, because I only write 
when I feel the positive need, and this is independent 
of my will, or the wish of others." Such was also the 
law of Halleck's mind, and of the mind of every poet 
who reveres his divine gift. God cannot accept a me- 
chanical prayer ; and I do not compare sacred things 
with profane, when I say that a poem cannot be ac- 
cepted which does not compel its own inspired utter- 
ance. He is the true priest of the human heart and the 
human soul, who rhythmically expresses the emotions 
and the aspirations of his own. 



28 

It has been said of Halleck as of Campbell, that 
" he was afraid of the shadow which his own fame cast 
before him." I protest against the use of a clever 
epigrammatic sentence to misinterpret the poetic na- 
tm'e to men. The inference is, that poets write merely 
for that popular recognition which is called fame ; and, 
having attained a certain degree, fear to lose it by later 
productions, which may not prove so acceptable. A 
writer, influenced by such a consideration, never de- 
served the name of poet. It is an unworthy estimate 
of his character which thus explains the honest and 
honorable silence of Fitz-Greene Halleck, The quality 
of genius is not 'to be measured by its productive ac- 
tivity. The brain which gave us " Alnwick Castle," 
" Marco Bozzaris, " " Burns," and " Ked Jacket," was 
not exhausted ; it was certainly capable of other and 
equally admirable achievements ; but the fortunate 
visits of the Muse are not to be compelled by the poet's 
will, and Halleck endured her absence without com- 
plaint, as he had enjoyed her favors without ostentation. 
The very fact that he wrote so little proclaims the sin- 
cerity of his genius, and harmonizes with the entire 
character of his life. It was enough for him that he 
first let loose the Theban eagle in our soDgless Ameri- 
can air. He was glad and satisfied to know that his 
lyrics have entered into and become a part of the na- 
tional life — that 

" Sweet tears dim the ejes unshed, 
And wild vows falter on the tongue," 



29 

when his lines, keen and flexible as fire, burn in the 
ears of the young who shall hereafter sing, and fight, 
and labor, and love, for " God and their native land ! " 
It is not necessary that we should attempt to deter- 
mine his relative place among American poets. It is 
sufiicient that he has his assured place, and that his 
name is a permanent part of our literary history. It is 
sufiicient that lie deserves every honor whicli we can 
render to his memory, not only as one of the very first 
representatives of American Song, but from his intrinsic 
quality as a poet. Let us rather be thankful for every 
star set in our heaven, than seek to ascertain how they 
difier from one another in glory. If any critic would 
diminish the loving enthusiasm of those whose li^es 
have been brightened by the poet's personal sunshine, 
let him remember that the sternest criticism will set 
the lyrics of Halleck higher than their author's unam- 
bitious estimate. They will, in time, fix their own just 
place in our poetic annals. Ilalleck is still too near 
our orbit for the computation of an exact parallax ; but 
we may safely leave his measure of fame to the decision 
of impartial Time. A poem which bears within itself 
its own right to existence, will not die. Its rhythm is 
freshly fed from the eternal pulses of beauty, whence 
flows the sweetest Hfe of the human race. Age cannot 
quench its original fire, or repetition make dull its im- 
mortal music. It forever haunts that purer atmosphere 
which overlies the dust and smoke of our petty cares 
and om* material interests — often, indeed, calling to us 



30 

like a distant clarion, to keep awake the sense of intel- 
lectual deliglit whicli would else perish from our lives. 
The poetic literature of a land is the finer and purer 
ether above its material growth and the vicissitudes of 
its history. Where it was vacant and barren for us, 
except, perchance, a feeble lark-note here and there, 
Dana, Halleck, and Bryant rose together on steadier 
wings and gave voices to the solitude — Dana with a 
broad, grave undertone, like that of the sea ; Bryant 
with a sound as of the wind in summer woods, and the 
fall of waters in mountain-dells; and Halleck with 
strains blown from a silver trumpet, breathing manly 
fire and courage. Many voices have followed them ; 
the ether rings with new melodies, and yet others shall 
come to lure all the aspirations of our hearts, and echo 
all the yearnings of our separated destiny ; but we 
shall not forget the forerunners who rose iu advance of 
their welcome, and created their own audience by their 
songs. 

Thus it is, that in dedicating a monument to Fitz- 
Greene Halleck to-day, we symbolize the intellectual 
growth of the American people. They have at last 
taken that departure which represents the higher de- 
veloj)ment of a nation — the capacity to value the genius 
which cannot work with material instruments ; which 
is unmoved by Atlantic Cables, Pacific Railroads, and 
any show of marvellous statistical tables ; which grand- 
ly dispenses with the popular measures of success; 
which simply expresses itself, without consciously work- 



31 

ing for the delight of others — yet which, once recog- 
nized, stands thenceforth as a part of the glory of the 
whole people. It is a token that w^e have relaxed the 
rough work of two and a half centuries, and are beginning 
to enjoy that rest and leisure, out of which the grace and 
the beauty of civilization grow. The pillars of our politi- 
cal fabric have been slowly and massively raised, like the 
drums of Doric columns, but they still need the crown- 
ing capitals and the sculptured entablature. Law, and 
Kight, and Physical Development build well, but they 
are cold, mathematical architects : the Poet and the 
Artist make beautiful the temple. Our natural ten- 
dency, as a people, is to worship positive material 
achievement in whatever form it is displayed ; even the 
poet must be a partisan before the government will 
recognize his existence. So much of our intellectual 
energy has been led into the new paths which our na- 
tional growth has opened — so exacting are the demands 
upon working brains — that taste and refinement of 
mind, and warm appreciation of the creative spirit of 
Beauty, are only beginning to bloom here and there 
among us, like tender exotic flowers. " The light that 
never was on sea or land " shines all around us, but 
few are the eyes whose vision it clarifies. Yet the fac- 
ulty is here, and the earnest need. The delight in Art, 
of which Poetry is the highest manifestation, has ceased 
to be the privilege of a fortunate few, and will soon be- 
come, let us hope, the common heritage of the people. 
If any true song has heretofore been sung to unheeding 



32 

ears, let us behold, in this dedication, the sign that our 
reproach is taken away — that, henceforth, every new 
melody of the land shall spread in still expanding vibra- 
tions, until all shall learn to listen ! 

The life of the Poet who sleeps here represents the 
long period of transition between the appearance of 
American Poetry and the creation of an appreciative 
and sympathetic audience for it. We must honor him 
all the more that in the beginning he was content with 
the few who heard him ; that the agitations of national 
life through which he passed could not ruffle the clear 
flow of his song ; and that, with a serene equanimity of 
temper, which is the rarest American virtue, he saw, 
during his whole life, wealth and personal distinction 
constantly passing into less deserving hands, without 
temptation and without envy. All popular supersti- 
tions concerning the misanthropy or the irritable temper 
of Genius were disproved in him : I have never known 
a man so independent of the moods and passions of his 
generation. "We cannot regret that he should have 
been chosen to assist in the hard pioneer work of our 
literature, because he seemed to be so unconscious of its 
privations. Yet he and his co-mates have walked a 
rough, and for the most part a lonely track, leaving a 
smoother way broken for their followers. They have 
blazed their trails through the wilderness, and carved 
their sounding names on the silent mountain-peaks, 
teaching the scenery of our homes a language, and 
giving it a rarer and tenderer charm than even the 



33 

atmosphere of great historic deeds. Fitz-Greene Hal- 
leck has set his seal upon the gray rocks of Connecticut, 
on the heights of Weehawken, on the fair valley of Wy- 
oming, and the Field of the Grounded Arms. He has 
done his manly share in forcing this half-subdued Na- 
ture in which we live to accept a human harmony, and 
cover its soulless beauty with the mantle of his verse. 

However our field of poetic literature may bloom, 
whatever products of riper culture may rise to over- 
shadow its present growths, the memory of Halleck is 
perennially rooted at its entrance. Kecognizing the 
purity of his genius, the nobility of his character, we 
gratefully and affectionately dedicate to him this mon- 
ument. There is no cypress in the wreath which we 
lay upon his grave. We do not meet to chant a dirge 
over unfulfilled promises or an insufficient destiny. 
We have no wilful defiance of the world to excuse, no 
sensitive protest to justify. Our hymn of consecration 
is cheerful, though solemn. Looking forward from 
this hallowed ground, we can only behold a Future for 
our Poetry, sunnier than its Past. We see the love of 
Beauty born from the servitude to Use — the recognition 
of an immortal ideal element gradually evolved from 
the strength of natures which have conquered material 
forces — the growth of all fine and gracious attributes of 
imagination and fancy, to warm, and sweeten, and ex- 
pand the stately coldness of intellect. We dream of 
days when the highest and deepest utterances of rhyth- 
mical thought shall be met with grateful welcome, not 
3 



34 

with dull amazement or mean suspicion. We wait fo 
voices which shall no more say to the Poet : " Stay 
here, at the level of our delight in you ! " — ^but which 
shall cry to him : " Higher, still higher ! though we 
may not reach you, yet in following we shall rise ! " 
And, as our last prophetic hope, we look for that fortu- 
nate age, when the circle of sympathy, now so limited, 
shall be coextensive with the nation, and when, even as 
the Poet loves his Land, his Land shall love her Poet ! 

After further music by the band, and singing by a 
quartette chorus of the hymn, " I would not live alway," 
the ceremonies came to a close, the assembly slowly 
dispersed, and the sweet singer in whose honor so many 
liundreds had made pilgrimages to the quiet old Con- 
necticut town, and in respect to whose memory business 
was suspended on that day, was left to the sunny silence 
of the cemetery where he sleeps. It was a " red-letter 
day " in the history of Guilford. 

IMPROMPTU LINES ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEDICATION OF 
FITZ-GREENE HALLECK'S MONUMENT AT GUILFORD. 

By Benjamin H. Field. 

Foe thou art spirit-born, 

And Time shall limit not 
The dawning of thy morn, 

Or Hx thy native cot. 

But every vine-clad hill, 
And every summer's shower. 

And every joyous rill. 
Reveals thy natal hour. 



35 

And every rose-clad bower, 

And every sacred grot, 
And Freedom's lofty tower — 

"What place shall clahu thee not? 

Lake George asserts her claim, 

And in her quiet dell 
The merry bird shall sing thy name, 

And so shall forest belle. 

And on her jewelled isle,* 
When kneels the maiden fair, 

The water clear reflects thy smile, 
Whose spirit hovers there. 

Niagara's rushing stream 

Shall syllable thy name ; 
Her maiden's wildest dream 

Shall echo but thy fame. 

Pause, angry spirit of the fall ; 

O, cease thy useless strife ; 
Thy vapor is some human pall, 

Thy rush but emblems life. 

In person thousands came. 

In spirit millions more, 
To deify thy uan)e 

Upon thy native shore. 

Now let us Him adore, 
Who gave thy spirit wing 

Above this earth to soar. 
And every human thing. 

* Diamond Island. 



36 

Holmes imitates thy song, 

And Taylor speaks thy vrortli; 

Green be thy land, and h alio \\'ecl long 
The place that claims thy birth. 



THE POET'S COKNEE. 

Of all tlie dedications these radiant summer days 
have seen, not one is more significant than the simple 
ceremony yesterday observed at Guilford. It was only 
the setting of a memorial-stone at the head of a dead 
poet. And the j^oet himself was unfamiliar to the 
younger public of to-day. Only in its reading-books 
had the fire of " Marco Bozzaris " kindled the new gen- 
eration, and '• Marco Bozzaris " was all it knew of Fitz- 
Greene Halleck. "When the sweet flower of his life 
suddenly dropped, one morning, from the stem of time, 
it was only they who had long watched its beauty, and 
rejoiced in its perfection, who knew that it had not 
years before faded into dearly-remembered dust. There- 
fore it is especially noteworthy that, to this removed 
and noiseless genius, the first monument which the peo- 
ple have builded, in the name of a poet, should be dedi- 
cate. 

Because Halleck was the first American singer to 
be rejoiced in by the people — for Dana's strain was too 
grave and measured to be popular, and Bryant be- 
longed to a later day — it is fitting that he should be 
the first to be remembered in enduring stone. He was 



born after more than a century of hard, material life, 
which had hardly once flowered into art. It was proof 
that the nation had climbed on stepping-stones of its 
dead self to higher things, that the time was ripe for a 
poet, and that the poet was beloved. And so, to lay 
our lilies on his grave, is to commemorate a nobler epoch 
of our race. The nation could not linger to listen to 
him. It was hm'rying to the Western sea, and covering 
the land with the results of its breathless, never-ending 
work. But his strain gave wings to the fancies of a 
hundred rhymers. Some of them, of a bolder spirit 
than their teacher, rejoiced in this large activity, were 
kindled by it, and responsive to it, and themselves be- 
came the popular poets. It was good, for the poet is 
first a man. But, in this dusty, noisy rush of time, it 
seems better that there should be, now and then, a 
singer who lives out of the press and quarrel, and has 
thoughts cool as the May dews, and sweeter than ajDple- 
blooms. Especially does it seem better when one thinks 
how impossible it is to stand in the market-place and 
not send greetings to the right hand and the left, to 
be solicited for speech, and to keep holy silence, save 
when the divine command impels. In Halleck we 
honor the poet's forbearance equally with the poet's 
work. He warmly loved his art, but he kept spotless 
her integrity. So, because he shrank from any praise 
which he had not earned, and could never sing to earn 
praise, we do well to remind ourselves that he thus rep- 
resented the loftiest and purest genius. 



38 

As a people, we do not build monuments. It is 
common to say that onr brave, and gifted, and noble, 
have their monmnents in the hearts of the people. But 
it is true only in a partial sense, for we have not time to 
remember, unless some visible token calls our thought 
back to them, who are behind us. We are beginning 
to raise shafts above our soldiers, which declare how 
beautiful and immortal a thing is heroism in a just 
cause, and every one we have builded makes us richer. 
Let us hope that we know at last the debt we owe to 
our poets, and that we shall raise above them shafts to tell 
how beautiful and immortal a thing is the imagination. 
"We shall have no Westminster Abbey. More and more 
as the years go on, more and more in America will the 
sentiment of religion refuse to be pent in chm-ches, or 
to consecrate here a chapel and there a cathedral. Infinite 
as the Infinite Soul, it will call all places sacred where a 
sweet humanity has followed after the Highest. And 
when we lay our great ones down to rest, whether they 
were of high or low estate, we have laid them in a 
grander temple than the marvellous church, if the pave- 
ment be the green turf, and the roof the smiling sky. 
We will seal tliem in no stony isolation from their kind, 
but give them back to kindly earth, that out of their 
sweet dust violets may spring. But the shaft of stone 
shall tell their nobleness wlio had once a mortal life, and 
the living shall be grateful for the inheritance of their 
genius and their simplicity. It was a fine saying of 
Schiller, that to the artist is intrusted the dignity of 



39 

man. IsTo artist ever kept the trust more simply and 
more liigWy than Fitz-Greene Halleck. What could 
we do for him yesterday save to leave him in the Poet's 
Corner, and to cut his name in the stone ? — New YorJc 
Tribune, July 9, 18G9. 



A STATUE OF FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 

The friends of the late gifted poet, Fitz-Greene Hal- 
leck, who may desire to contribute toward the erection 
of a full-length bronze statue of him, for which a site 
has been selected by the Commissioners of the Central 
Park, are invited to forward their subscriptions to the 
Treasurer of the Committee, whose name appears below, 
or to any of the undersigned. The sum of twelve thou- 
sand dollars is required for the erection of the statue, a 
considerable portion of which amount has been already 
subscribed by citizens of New York : 

Samuel F. B. Morse, President^ 5 West 22d Street. 
Jas. Geant Wilson, Secretary ^ 51 St. Mark's Place. 
Benjamin H. Field, Treasurer^ 21 East 26th Street. 
William 0. Beyant, Samuel B. Ruggles, 

Hamilton Fish, William H. Appleton, 

S. B. Chittenden, William T. Blodgett, 

John II. Gouelie, Andeew II. Geeen, 

William Kemble, Evaet A. Duyckinck. 



